EU report shows massive increase in legal highs

New psychoactive substances, dubbed “legal highs,” came on the market across the European Union at the rate of almost two a week last year, says an annual report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, based in Portugal.1

In addition to the 101 such substances reported to the EU’s early warning system a further 41 have already been identified this year, bringing to more than 450 the number of substances the centre is monitoring. Some two thirds came from two groups: synthetic cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids, which are sold …